Fact Check: Are Sacked Directors like Jimoh Musa Itopa Being Smuggled Back to the CBN?
Claim: A claim shared on WhatsApp alleged that Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) has reinstated Jimoh Musa Itopa, a director allegedly affected by the May 2024 sacking of directors in the apex Bank.
A publication by Nigeria’s Tech reporting news platform, Tech Cabal, titled, “CBN Reinstates Jimoh Musa as Director of Key Payments Unit” was referred to in the claim.
The text accompanying the claim reads, “Naija Na wa ooh. They have started smuggling the sacked directors back to CBN… Look at this latest one????????*
CBN reinstates Jimoh Musa as director of key payments unit*’
On May 24, 2024, the CBN terminated the employment of at least 200 staff members, including several directors and other senior managers.
Verification: PRNigeria fact check opened the news story and read through the entire texts. Tech Cabal reported that Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) reinstated Jimoh Musa Itopa, a director in the Payments System Management Department (PSMD).
According to the platform, his return signals a significant leadership change in the crucial department responsible for licensing payment switching companies, regulating agent banks, and overseeing cashless policies and open banking initiatives.
There was no reference in the report to Musa being recalled from the May 2024 mass sacking of CBN’S government officials.
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“For the records, Mr Itopa was unaffected by the May 2024 restructuring exercise,” a CBN spokesperson told TechCabal. “He was only redeployed from the Payment Systems Management Department (PSMD) to the Capacity Development Department (CDD) in November 2023. His current re-assignment to PSMD results from the Bank’s ongoing restructuring.”
However, PRNigeria ran a wayback check on the publications URL, while there was no Google cached services available for the page, their Meta tag reveals that the report was published on February 6, 2025 at 14:44:41GMT however on the same date at exactly 18:53:23, the report was modified, about 4hrs after it was initially posted.
Further findings by PRNigeria reveal that, while as at 24 May 2024 when the news of the sacking of the directors broke, Itopa was erroneously reported to have been included among those sacked but an Investigative findings by Daily Trust published on 25 May 2024, published the list of all the actual directors affected, with Itopa’s name conspicuously excluded.
The publication at the foot of its story added an editor’s note clarifying that the report had been updated, “following fresh findings about the status of some directors who were initially captured as sacked…”
Conclusion: findings by PRNigeria revealed that Mr Itopa was unaffected by the May 2024 restructuring exercise as claimed by the WhatsApp post. While he was erroneously included in initial news reports, fresh findings about the actual status of the affected directors revealed he was not part of them.
PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim that Mr Itopa was a sacked director reinstated by the CBN, is Misleading.
By PRNigeria
